This article, written by Mary Clare Jalonick of the Associated Press, talks about how the USDA wanted to change current regulations for school lunches. Essentially, they wanted to limit the amount of fries and pizza children were eating at school. How it was, and still is now, is schools are allowed to serve an eight of a cup of tomato paste and count it as a serving of vegetables. Through lobbying, food companies prevented the new bill from passing in order to produce food at a lower cost. This will allow low budget schools to afford the food they need.
People have accepted this bill as saying pizza is a vegetable, despite the small amount of tomato paste on the pizza. On top of that, there are debates claiming that the nutrients found in potatoes, and starchy vegetables are being overlooked. However, there is a specific group of activists who go as far as calling this whole ordeal a matter of "national security" based upon the facts that obesity is the leading cause of medical issues. One specific woman, Amy Dawson Taggart addressed Congress in a letter stating, "It doesn't take an advanced degree in nutrition to call this national disgrace."
The idea of tomato paste being considered a vegetable is outrageous. It is almost a form of a loop hole, where putting something healthy in something unhealthy, now becomes a healthy option for the students to eat. The assumption that pizza becomes a vegetable is a possible idea, if drawn out the right way. For instance, using the right ingredients, like a whole wheat or multi-grain crust and a low fat cheese, can make for a healthy meal. However, promoting the healthiness of tomato paste as it is now is not helping students make better choices in their eating habits. Tomato paste might be just one of many revisions needed in school lunches.
What is your opinion of tomato paste being considered a vegetable? Can pizza be considered a vegetable if tomato paste is on it? Does this idea seem like deception or a revolutionary idea meaning that unhealthy foods can be perceived as healthy with a change of ingredients?
It is ridiculous that pizza is counted as a vegetable while so many American children are obese. I am sympathetic toward low-budget schools, but there is no reason that producing frozen vegetables should cost a significant amount more than producing frozen pizza. Additionally, the article mentioned that the original bill put a limit on the helpings of starch served in schools per week as an attempt to limit children's consumption of french fries. It also mentioned how potato farmers and other concerned parties then successfully had that limit removed. Seeing as some schools serve fries daily, this is outrageous. Why not agree on a solution agreeable to both sides, such as serving baked or mashed potatoes?
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is insane to consider tomato paste as a vegetable. And pizza cannot be considered a vegetable just because a tomato paste is on it. That's like saying strawberry shortcake is a fruit. As stated above, it is possible to make pizza a healthier meal if you use the right ingredients, but there are still far better options. I think the idea of calling tomato paste a vegetable is extremely deceptive and it might cause kids to become confused about what they can actually count as a serving of vegetables.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with the other comments and say that calling tomato paste a vegetable is really ridiculous. Putting tomato paste on a pizza does not make pizza a vegetable, and pizza, in my opinion, should never ever be called a vegetable. First of all, it's not just made out of tomato paste, but it is also made from dough, cheese, and other toppings. Usually the toppings on the pizza tend to make it greasy and unhealthy. Also the point that Lauren brought up about the strawberry shortcake as being a fruit is the same thing. We may add strawberries so it seems healthier, but you have to take into account what else is around the serving of "healthy" food.
ReplyDeleteJust the fact that congress is opposed to the idea of making school lunches healthy is ridiculous. This just shows the influence of large food companies have on the government.The idea of counting two tablespoons of tomato sauce as a vegetable is the same as counting two sticks of beef jerky as an adequate supply of meat or two spoonfuls of apple sauce as a serving of fruit; absolutely absurd.
ReplyDeleteLike everybody else has already said, it is ridiculous that pizza is considered a vegetable because tomato paste is put on the pizza. One of the main priorities of schools should be to provide their students with healthy school lunches, even if it requires the spending on food to increase. Child obesity is one of the leading concerns in America and this will not change if schools continue to provide unhealthy food at lunch. And by telling children that pizza is a vegetable and is healthy, then that gives them a false perception of what is good to eat and might have an effect on what other food they perceive as healthy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone else who said that the entire notion of classifying pizza as a vegetable is ridiculous. Pizza is far from natural as well as unhealthy. Just because a food contains a vegetable does not mean it is a vegetable. There are many other things added to pizza that makes it unhealthy, such as meats, cheese, excessive salt, etc. If you put some ketchup on a bar chocolate, could you label chocolate as a vegetable? Pizza is a MIXTURE of foods from different food categories. Not a vegetable.
ReplyDeleteI actually could not believe what I was reading; I seriously thought that my eyes were deceiving me! Since when is tomato paste considered a vegetable? And how is pizza considered a vegetable, when there are other ingredients in it (like cheese, bread) like Corey suggested? Also, like what the others said, saying that tomato paste is a vegetable gives these kids a false sense of what is and is not considered healthy. I agree that a homemade pizza using multigrain pizza, low fat cheese, etc may be healthier, but it is not the best option. One of the school's priorities should be the health and nutrition of these kids, and providing foods that contribute to that. While budget and costs may be tight at the moment, failure to provide health options to these kids solely because of cost is ridiculous. I think that if schools really wanted to provide healthier options, they could find some sort of way to overcome the cost issue.
ReplyDeleteTomato paste does not sound like much of a vegetable whatsoever. It sounds absurd that it's even in the runnings to be grouped as such. I was intrigued when I heard this and just so happened to have a can of tomato paste in my cupboard. I compared 1 serving of tomato paste (which is 2 tablespoons) to 1 serving of canned green beans and was pretty surprised what I saw. Both contain 0grams of fat and 0 grams of cholesterol. Tomato paste has less sodium than the green beans and more protein. They are equal in fiber. The paste contains more vitamin C, more iron, and equal amounts of vitamin A. Tomato paste is also a great source of the antioxidant lycopene. While it sounds absurd, the fact that one serving of tomato paste has no fat or cholesterol, and less sodium, more protein, vitamin C, and iron than one serving of green beans it speaks for itself. The brands that they use in lunches are probably different and I could have really unhealthy green beans but from this comparison I would now definitely consider tomato paste a good source of vegetables. Pizza on the other hand absolutely not, just because you have vegetables on it doesn't make it a vegetable.
ReplyDeleteJoe makes a good point. Tomato paste can be healthy, but as soon as you add it to that greasy mixture of dough, cheese, pepperoni, and who knows what else, it pretty much looses its nutritional value and vegetable classification. Even if they changed the ingredients a bit, pizza is still pizza. No matter how much they attempt to change it by adding the healthiest of cheeses and the best dough, it's still an unhealthy American invention. People just instantly assume it's "healthy" because the ingredients are supposed to be better (and we have that misconception for more foods that just pizza).
ReplyDeleteProps to Joes' comparison. This shows that at least some tomato paste can be considered a serving of vegetables. However, just throwing a healthy ingredient together with a bunch of unhealthy ingredients does not make a healthy meal. I feel that most schools probably do not have the funding to afford a variety of top notch ingredients to make their school lunches as healthy as possible. So, the best they can do is try to find the "best" middle-ground between healthy and cost-effective. Also, many parents would honestly rather have their kids just eat whatever the present school food is than have to pay the extra money for better school lunches.
ReplyDeleteI think it is crazy that the government is calling pizza a vegetable because of the tomato paste. Tomatoes are a fruit. I think the bill was passed though as a temporary fix for school lunch programs. Schools are required to serve a certain types and amounts of food to stay on the program. Making pizza a vegetable will allow schools to continue buy food cheaply until a permanent resolution has been made.
ReplyDeleteJust like everyone has mentioned, considering tomato paste a vegetable is absolutely ridiculous. This idea is entirely too deceiving and will cause so many kids to actually believe that eating anything with tomato paste on it is healthy or is counting as a serving of vegetables. Pizza should never be considered a vegetable because as others have mentioned, it contains grains, cheeses, and sometimes meats. These are ingredients from different food categories, not just vegetables. I also think it's kind of sad that schools are having to do this just so they can afford the food. There are much better ways to have healthy meals for kids; pizza is not a healthful food. Although, I did find Joe's comment really interesting and would have never expected those nutritional facts.
ReplyDeleteAs Joe showed, tomato paste can be comparable to vegetables and can even be a little healthier than vegetables. However, I don't think that pizza can be considered a vegetable because a lot of other stuff that isn't comparable to vegetables goes into making a pizza. I think the only way kids can have a healthy meal at school is by bringing a lunch prepared at home. This way parents can make sure that their kids are getting actual vegetables in their meal.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the topic of this blog post I remembered this clip from SNL.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/302529/saturday-night-live-weekend-update-really-with-seth-and-kermit
First off, is a tomato even a vegetable? Many people will argue that it is a fruit. Even if it is a vegetable, pizza should not be considered a vegetable because it has tomato paste on it. Thats like saying a McDouble is considered a vegetable because it has ketchup. I feel like this is just a way for companies to make more money by marketing their food as 'healthier' when it is really the same as before. Just putting something healthy on something does not make it healthy. Even though you can make healthy food unhealthy, a salad with too much dressing, I dont think it is possible to make significantly unhealthy food healthy.
ReplyDeleteThe clip ^^ was really good at responding to this post.
There is no way any person could justify pizza being a vegetable because of tomato paste. This idea is pure stupidity and the fact that someone could agree with this is absurd. The bill was obviously passed for money reasons. By saying that tomato paste is a vegetable, you are deceiving people (especially children) into believing that all items with tomato paste are healthy. This article is very humorous to me because whenever I think about pizza, I think of the most unhealthy thing I could eat.
ReplyDeleteIt's ridiculous to consider pizza as a vegetable, even with tomato paste on it. Maybe tomato paste has some nutrition that a vegetable could have, but similar nutrition doesn't make a food product a vegetable. It's more like a fraud for some people to make profit from it. This idea could be revolutionary if like the article says, using low fat cheese, multi-grain crust etc. Children don't like to eat vegetables, so this could be way to help reduce obesity. If a pizza can have balanced nutrition, it could be considered healthy food.
ReplyDelete